^LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

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I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



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SPEEO H 



OP 



HON. E. 0. PERRIN, 



AT 



WASHINOTOSM'S MONUMENT, 



TO 



se:i^o^jea.tvt 33^^te:s, 



AFTER HE HAD BEEN 



Driven, with his Flag, from the National Capitol, 



af»r,ixj 14, ises. 



im 




WASHINGTON: 

INTELLIGENCER PRINTINa HOUSE, 
Nos. 401 anil 403 D Street, uear ?th. 

18G8. 



> r CONSERVATIVE ARMY AND NAVY UNION CLUB 

4 T^^ASHIIVGTOIN, 1>. C. 



SPEEC H 



OF 



HON. E. O. PERRIN, 

AT WASHINGTON'S MONJJIVIENT, 

TO 

After he had been driven, tcith his Flag, from the National 
Capitol, April 14, 1868. 



Sergeant Bates : As ynexpectedly to myself as to yon, 
the Reception Committee have this moment requested me 
to welcome you and your flag, after having been driven 
from l/he portals of the nation's Capitol. 

After such a repulse from such a source, no place could 
be more appropriate than here, at the base of this unfinished 
monument, erected to commemorate the virtues of George 
Washington, the Father of his Country. 

Could the spirit of that great patriot look down upon this 
melancholy scene to-day, he might deliver another farewell 
address to ali the hopes and prospects of a distracted country. 

Look but a moment on the picture. That silken banner, 
wrought by fair hands upon the banks of the Mississippi, and 
placed in your keeping by the citizens of Vicksburg on the 
28th of last January, has been borne by you, over moun- 
tain and valley, 'mid sunshine and rain, by night and by 
day, for nearly three weary months, through the States of 
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina, and Virginia, and everywhere throughout these once 
rebellious States it has been hailed with joy and gladness — 
every city, village, and town joining in the glad shout — ^old 



2 

men an I young men, sol'diei's atid citizens, matrons and 
maidens, all, all weIcominj=^ it as the harbinger of better 
days. Even at Montgomery and Richmond, the boasted 
capitals of the late Confederacy, you were escorted to the 
dome of each Capitol, and ihe stripes and stars kissed again 
the balmy breeze of the once rebellious South, amid the loud 
plaudits of a conquered people. 

I learn, from good authority, that but one paper in all ths 
South cast any imputation upon you or your banner — 
" Pollard's Southern Opinion," a rebel sheet which echoes 
only the opinion of Pollard, and hardly that. He called 
upon the "people of Carolina to meet yorl on the border, 
welcome your insolent approach, and seat you upon some 
tall, solitary chimney left by Sherman as a bleak monument 
of his vandal raid, and there let you Wave your ray of op- 
pression amid the hootings and curses of an insulted people." 
Not a man, woman, or child responded to the unjust call. 
Mark my prediction, the whole revolutionary Northern press, 
down to "my two i)apers, both daily," will catch this in- 
spiration, join the vile strain, and echo back some fiendish 
chorus. Indignant rebuke followed the appeal down there; 
and, believe me, that liere the reddest thunder-bolt in God's 
fiery wrath is reserved to come down upon the heads of 
those who fatten on spoils, revel in plunder, and prostitute 
their patronage, all in the name of " libert}' " and the flag 
of their country, 

I have it from your own lips that everywhere upon your 
triumphal journey you have received the same warm, joy- 
ous, patriotic greeting, and all without the expenditure of 
one dollar, from Yicksburg to Washington. 

Yet here, in the capital of the nation, by men full of pro- 
fessions and boasting of loyalty, you have met your first, 
your only rebuke. At the m.oment you expected to crown 
your triumphal march by planting that flag upon the Dome 
of the Capitol, the massive doors of that temple of liberty 
are slammed in your face by the very men who have bolted 
and barred out infinitely more loyal Representatives than 



themselves, and you ara driven to Washington's Monument ; 
and there, with bowed head, you have unfurled your banner. 
Had the so-called rebels torn from it twenty-six bright 
stars, a Kadical Congress would have welcomed the dis- 
mantled ensign with shouts of joy, as being evidence of an 
unrepentant people. But it was a standing rebuke to them 
to find it pass safely and triumphantly throughout your 
entire journey without an insult, and recLuiring no recon- 
struction at their hands. 

Yours is the same banner denounced thus by the Radical 
Tribune : 

"Tear down the flaunting lie ; 
Furl up the starry flag ; 
Insult no sunny sky 

With hate's polluted rag." 

Could you expect a better fate for the flag of your country 
from such a source ? 

Had it met this repulse and insult at Montgomery or 
Richmond, then would your coming have been welcomed 
with Radical delight. 

It matters not, therefore, if you did defend that flag 
during the war, and love and revere it in time of peace, you 
are guilty of a " high crime and misdemeanor," and deserve 
impeachment for presuming to float it from yonder Dome 
with thirty-six stars upon it, representing as many States, 
while the Rump htlow have sworn that ten of those stars 
represent only " conquered 'provinces,''^ pinned to the Union 
by loyal bayonets, and governed by five military dictators. 

Your mistake, Mr. Sergeant, is an innocent and a natural 
one. You believed in the professions of these men. You 
thought their loud boasting of love for the Union was sin- 
cere. The people once thought like you, but, like yourself, 
they too have been undeceived, and find that, while they 
keep the word of promise to the ear, they break it to the 
hope. Had you taken some dusky son of Ham, and borne 
him Atlas-like upon your back through the sunny South, 
and landed him safely here, a Radical Congress would have 



4 

opened wide those bolted doors, and, when yon thrast your 
sable brother — the American citizen of African descent — into 
the outstretched arms of the Goddess of Liberty which crowns 
the dome of yonder Capiiol, one loud, long shout of joy 
would have gone up from those gilded halls below, and you 
Avotild have been hailed as a hero and crowned with the laurel. 

Seated in that same Capitol from which you are driven, 
they strike down the Supreme Court, trample upon the 
Constitution of our fathers, ride over the sacredness of law, 
and, in the madness of iheir wrath, drunken with power, 
they are this moment enacting the solemn farce of impeach- 
ing a President for the high crime and misdemeanor of re- 
fusing to bow down to their party lash, and daring to stand 
between them and an outraged Constitution. 

This "traitor President'"' gave you and the flag a warm 
welcome to-da}', and the loyal Senate, that bars you out of 
the Capitol, may, for that high crime, frame another charge 
in their bill of indictment. 

The President stood beneath the ilag in time of war, and 
such men love it in time of peace. 

When the rebellion raged, he did not continue "to dwell 
in those marble halls," but resigned his cushioned seat in the 
Senate, gave up his five thousand a year, and, bearing a 
commission I'rom President Lincoln, he went back to his 
own Tennessee, then surrounded by rebel armies, and be- 
neath just such a banner be " fouglit out the good fight " till 
be brought back the land of Jackson to the Union of our 
Fathers; the only State yet restored since the Confederacy 
of Jeif. Davis crumbled to the ground. Yet h,e\s a "traitor," 
and the men who did not insult and repulse your f^ag are 
" rebels." 

Compare his record v«'ith the military career of that radi- 
cal body that has just repulsed you, and are now sitting in 
solemn mockery as a " High Court of Impeachment on him." 
Call the roll of that " High Court," and then call the roll of 
itll the armies of ihc Nation, and show Uie the name of v, 



5 

siuf.i'le Senatorial Impeacher that ever followed that flag into 
battle, or fought 1 eneath its stripes and stars. 

From what source, then, do they obtain their warrant to 
condemn better and braver men? On what bloody fields 
did they win their laurels? During four years of sanguin- 
ary war, and almost four of unreconstructed peace, what 
arms did they ever face except the tbony, and alabaster 
arms in the ladies' gallery ? 

I beg pardon; one of that grand inquest did raise a regi- 
ment in the Old Bay Siate, endured the privations and 
hardships of a forced inarch "hy raiV^ from Boston to 
Washington, faced gallantl}^ all the dangers and peril of a 
full dress parade down Pennsylvania avenue, crossed the 
Long Bridge in triumph, without drowning a man, and hear- 
ing that Beauregard and his rebel army were approaching 
the capital, transferred his regiment by endorsement to a 
fighting General, and then Flora Temple never made better 
time on the Fashion Course than this Impeacher made from 
the batcie Held of Bull Run to the gilded halls of the Uni- 
ted States Senate, On that fatal day a terrified Federal 
soldier, "fleeing from the wrath to come," said he thought 
he was doing some tall running " till a member of Congress 
passed him, and then he thought he was standing still." 
That valiant hero sits to day impeaching the only man who 
resigned his seat in the Senate to face the enemies of his 

country. 

" Judge ye between them." 

But we must not despair. Their transient voice is not 
the voice of the people. No ; 

" A breath cau unmake them as a breath has made." 

They but imitate the rash youth " who fired the Ephesian 
Dome, that his name might outlive the memory of the pious 
fool who reared it." 

I well remember, in the compromise days of 1850, Daniel 
Webster, the great expounder of the Constitution, after voting 
for those measures that spread the bow of promise in the 



political heavens, returned to Boston and asked the poor 
privilege of defending his course, and the same Radical 
fanatics that drove jou and your flag from the Capitol to- 
day barred the doors of Faneuil Hall, that cradle of liberty, 
against Daniel Webster. Like yourself, he was driven into 
the inclement air, and gave them that rebuke which I may 
well repeat here : 

"0! ye solid men of Boston, you have conquered an inhospitable 
climate ; you have conquered a sterile and barren soil ; you have con- 
quered the very wavef that wash your chores ; but you have yet to 
conquer your pi-ejudiccs." 

Alas ! his appeal fell upon leaden ears. With uncou- 
quered prejudices they followed him through life ; and long 
after his form had mingled with the dust at Marshfield, and 
his patriotic spirit gone back to the God who gave it, they 
insulted his memory, and, hyena-like, desecrated his sepul- 
chre, by petitioning the Legislature to tear down the bronze 
monument erected by a grateful people in the capital of the 
State he had honored far more than it could ever honor him. 
" O ! Shame, where is thy blush." 

Sir, after receiving such an ovation through the entire 
South, I can well imagine your feelings of sadness, mortifi- 
cation, and disgust, when thus rudely repulsed by those false 
pretenders who claim such exalted patriotism, and are for- 
ever prating of their devotion to the National flag. 

The people must soon see their shameless hypocrisy and 
empty boasting; and, in the face of such an insult, you might, 
while driven from the Capitol, look back contemptuously on 
that " Radical Rump," and, with far more truth than poetry, 
exclaim : 

' ' Blush ! if of manly blocxl one drop remains 
To steal its lonely course along your veins ; 
Blush ! if the bronze, long hardened on the cheek, 
Has left one spot where that poor drop can speak. 
Blush ! to be branded with the perjurer's name, 
And if you dread not sin, at least dread sAame." 

You, sir, have laced rebel bullets in time of war, and you 
can bear Radical insults in time of peace. 



l^e-ppair not ; you will find yourself in good company, and 
plenty of it, and will have received the same measure of 
reward meted out to every Union soldier, high or low, from 
George B. McClellan to the humblest private, who, having 
served his country on the field of battle, refuses to serve the 
" Radicals " at the ballot-box. If you love the " old flag,'' 
you are a rebel in disguise ; if you revere the Constitution, 
you area traitor to Congress; and oh! if you have the 
audacity either to think for yourself, sustain the President, 
scorn "Negro Sufl'rage," or, worse than all, vote the Demo- 
cratic ticket, you are then guilty of " high crimes and mis- 
demeanors," and, " in the name of all snvh people," you 
deserve immediate impeachment* When old Marius. ban- 
ished from Rome, and driven in exile to Carthage, was or- 
dered by a royal minion to depart from the desolation where 
be had taken refuge, the brave old hero exclaimed : 

"Tell your Master you have seen Caiu3 Marina sitting on the ruins of 
Carthage." 

Return, then, to your people, and tell them you have seen 
their Congress, sitting inside of the Capitol, legislating " out- 
side of the Constitution " tipon the ruins of the Union. 

A Union far more dissevered by them in three years of 
profound peace, than it was ever broken by Jeff. Davis and his 
rebel hosts during four years of bloody war. 

But the day will soon come when your bright banner can 
and ivill float from yonder Dome, every star having a State, 
and every State having her star. 

God grant that it may come quickly ; for on that proud 
day Congressional usurpation will stand rebuked, an out- 
raged Constitution will be vindicated, a fettered judiciary 
made free, and last, but by no means least, the Nation's 
Executive will be rescued from an outrage, oppression, and 
wrong unparalleled in the annals of modern persecution, 
and the irapeachers themselves stand forever impeached 
in the eyes of both God and man. 

Then, sir, will your late triumphant march live fresh and 
green in the memory of a grateful nation, while the very names 



of tlie men who drove you from the Cnpitol will be forj]^otten, 
or remembered only with the scorn and contemp!; which will 
ever follow the betrayers of a confidini^ people. 

I have linished ; unfurl now your banner to the breeze, 
with no paid minions to molest. Let it float from tliis neg- 
lected, unfinished shaft, a standing reproach to that reck- 
less Congress tliat squanders millions of the people's money 
on Freedmen's Bureaus and sable cemeteries, but cannot spare 
a dollar to the memory of George Washington, whose sacred 
ashes slumber to-day " in a conquered province '' outside of the 
Union he created and loved so well, and in sight of the 
\ery capital that bears his honored name* They have dis- 
graced themselves, humiliated you, and outraged the people, 
yet your banner is unstained. Bear it on proudly to vour 
far Western home. It will be welcomed everywhere by the 
people who went forth to defend it, with even greater glad- 
ness than by those who seek once more its protecting folds, 
and yearn for the happy days "that are no more." 

In the name of all the people. North, South, East, and 
West, we bid you " God speed," Long may you live to 
enjoy the pleasant memories of the past, and shate with us 
all the blessings of the future. 

For, as sure as yonder sun now shines upon us, our Union 
will be restored, Congress rebuked, and the nation saved^ 
Then will our children, and our children's children, for gen- 
erations to come, more than realize the wild enthusiastic 
dream of the patriot poet when he exclaimed : 

" Oh ! may we flourish at a ponderous rate, 
TowLS add to towns, and State succeed to State, 
Until at last, among its crimson bars. 
Our country's banner, crowded fall of stars, 
O'er freedoms sons ia happy triumph Wave, 
A hundred million, and not a single sijAVk." 

At the conclusion of Mr. Perrin's remaiks, the flag was 
waved from the Monument amid tremendous appLause, and 
nine rousing cheers. 




And the Star-spangled Banner, long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 



